Whedonesque : Comments on 18255 : Access Hollywood visits the set of Dollhouse.

It really is frakking huge. And amazing! Take me, take me! I'll be a doll! Who cares about ethics!

SFX magazine are doing a similar feature in their next issue.

That is a HUGE set! Great find b!X.

Does anyone know anything about the toy Eliza is playing with while she was sitting in the implant chair? It was oddly hypnotic. I really want one.

[ edited by EvilElecBlanket on 2008-12-01 20:53 ]

[ edited by EvilElecBlanket on 2008-12-01 21:09 ]

Eric_Curtis | December 01, 20:50 CET

There used to be one of those toys at my grandmother's house when I was growing up. It is oddly soothing to use.

ETA that it is the Whee-lo.

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2008-12-01 21:04 ]

The One True b!X | December 01, 20:58 CET

That is absolutely gorgeous! I think maybe only Bones has a set that big?
I love that the camera man is a fan and I also love how hyper and fun Eliza usually is at these things.

rafaboreanaz | December 01, 21:00 CET

Cool, thanks again b!X

[ edited by zeitgeist to fix </b>on 2008-12-01 21:15 ]

Eric_Curtis | December 01, 21:09 CET

What impresses me the most is how "un-set-like" the set actually appears. I remember watching the behind the scenes commentary for Buffy and feeling constantly shocked by how small and rink-a-dink everything was, i.e. grave yards in parking lots.

My favorite example Joss pointed out on his commentary for Hush. He said he only had one hall way to shoot for all “levels/stories” of the UC Sunnydale dorms. So he just had Amber/Tara run through the same hall way over and over again to make it appear as though she were running through several different hallways before she finally finds Aly/Willow.

This is exciting. I'm guessing his love for long takes will be better facilitated with this new set. I’m also interested in seeing how he and different directors/crew get creative with all that extra space.

Rebekah | December 01, 21:11 CET

I could probably watch Joss just walk around and talk about the big ideas embodied by the set long enough to fill a shortish documentary film. It's fascinating how the space is combining all these nuances of the themes. And it's so pretty. And it's unlike other sets on tv. I admire the Bones set but in a very most unrealistically awesome science lab ever way. This is different in a way I like.

Topher's office looks more realistic for lab/office space than what they have on Bones. More like what a lot of labbish people I know would do if they just had the space and leeway to mix toys and tools. Except I expected to see more productive mess. More stacking of things like notes next to the toys.

I used to have the toy Eliza is playing with. They are kind of meditative.

Sunfire | December 01, 21:11 CET

I'm still hoping that the beautiful Eliza will bring in fans even on a Friday night! Besides, I have a theory that with the NEW economy (ie everyone is broke) that more people will stay home on Friday nights and watch 'Dollhouse'. In fact it could be at home 'date night': stay in and cuddle w/your honey while you watch 'Dollhouse'! It certainly looks awesome.

embers | December 01, 21:11 CET

EvilElecBlanket, you have a broken /b tag in there.

ETA that no, now you don't. Nevermind.

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2008-12-01 21:16 ]

The One True b!X | December 01, 21:16 CET

On the case, b!X!

zeitgeist | December 01, 21:17 CET

Sorry, thanks for the save, zeitgeist.

Eric_Curtis | December 01, 21:25 CET

Wow, it looks like you could live in that place. I'd have fun just wandering around.

deepgirl187 | December 01, 21:41 CET

It seems inexplicable to me that this hasn't been linked to or mentioned on Future on Fox or FOX Broadcasting: Dollhouse. In fact, those sites haven't had a Dollhouse post in almost a month.

They're either asleep at the "new" media switch, understaffed or don't care. I'm starting to reach the place of Deep and Hurty Annoyance.

The tour was great... quite exciting to get such a peek in. Could've watched longer, but - always leave 'em wanting more.

I'm feeling twitchy, though, 'bout the Fox.

QuoterGal | December 01, 21:51 CET

The set IS bloody huge. It's an entire floor (er,stage) at one of the Fox buildings. It's one of the coolest locations I've seen in TV, and should be a lot of fun to shoot on.

A bunch of the New Media people who were involved with Dollhouse from the beginning have sadly departed company with FOX, so the online presence is, well.. Not great. And let's not mention the complete lack of promotion FOX just did during the sweeps. I know I shouldn't rag as it doesn't help, but seriously? At least show some promos if you're dumping it on a Friday night.

[ edited by gossi on 2008-12-01 23:25 ]

gossi | December 01, 23:16 CET

Everything I see or watch makes me more excited for the show, just sadly Fox itself isn't helping out.

Numfar PTB | December 01, 23:48 CET

Any time you have a show where people are excited in spite of the network rather than because of the network, you know something is wrong.

(Take that, press junkets!)

gossi | December 01, 23:52 CET

I hope Joss will comment here soon about how things are going in general and also Friday night timeslot.

WheelsOfJoy | December 02, 00:08 CET

Lacy wafty curtains around the massage tables ! Surely it's a sign ! Of something !

Jeez, that really is huge - I thought the presenter meant huge for a set but that was like an aircraft hangar or summat, huge even for a huge thing. You probably couldn't play football in there but I reckon you could have a mean game of badminton.

And yeah, Topher's lab was pretty cool, kind of like a bigger budget version of the basement in 'The IT Crowd' (maybe the set wasn't completely dressed and that's why there were fewer piles of notes etc. ? Or maybe it's a secrecy thing - paper can wander in a way e.g. laptops can't - or they use some sort of cool tablet computer ?).

Only thing ? Please tell me that's at least some super-cool multi-terabyte/petabyte hard-drive ? I know it's a tiny thing and maybe some cheesy sci-fi style prop would be worse but it's just weird to see human consciousnesseseses being stored on something you can pick up for 30 quid from your nearest computer shop. Course, maybe Topher's come up with some 133t compression algorithm, he is teh 5up3r haXx0r after all ;).

Saje | December 02, 00:09 CET

It should be noted that the new video IS posted on the FOX site!!

WheelsOfJoy | December 02, 00:10 CET

gossi: "A bunch of the New Media people who were involved with Dollhouse from the beginning have sadly departed company with FOX..."

Hmmmm. That sounds very much like a story in itself.

*sits back, puts feet up and waits hopefully with tall glass of something lethal and a not-diminished sense of deep hurty annoyance.*

QuoterGal | December 02, 00:15 CET

It should be noted that the new video IS posted on the FOX site!!

But if they'd just hire all of us to do it, it would have been there hours ago. ;)

They still haven't tweeted it, however.

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2008-12-02 00:17 ]

The One True b!X | December 02, 00:17 CET

QG:Hmmmm. That sounds very much like a story in itself.

You're right. Not that my word means much, but considering blogging about the matter.

Numfar PTB | December 02, 00:19 CET

*couBLOGh*

Sunfire | December 02, 00:19 CET

WheelsOfJoy: "It should be noted that the new video IS posted on the FOX site!!"

Which means they did it today after some twitters and posts about it.

And good.

QuoterGal | December 02, 00:20 CET

Yep, I second that throat clearing Numfar.

Saje | December 02, 00:22 CET

My very favoritist part is when Joss points at the Whee-lo and says, "This is our idea of science."

jcs | December 02, 00:36 CET

It reminds me of the season 5 Wolfram and Hart lobby: clean edges, lots of fluorescent light, open design, but creepy in an almost too clean, lighted, and open kinda way.
... anyways... Squeeee!

Linnea1928 | December 02, 00:41 CET

True that, jcs. That is HUGE. I'm shocked at how large it is. And happy though. Finally they get some room to play around in.

From my lab experience, people can be tidy, and not have towers of paper threatening to take out their maker.

My thinking is- the more "looks" matter, the "cleaner" it appears. Hence why chemistry professors' offices can be a dangerous place to get advice, while lead scientists who are involved with business & many meetings have a more sleek look.

Do love the toys, though. No scientist can be without their toys. >)

korkster | December 02, 01:00 CET

Saje, the memory device did make me laugh. It's a Compaq SCSI hard drive. I've got hundreds of them at work! I never could figure out why my friend Kirsty has called me Topher for, oh, many months.

gossi | December 02, 01:07 CET

Wait, haven't we ALL been calling gossi Topher for months?

[ edited by The One True b!X on 2008-12-02 01:10 ]

The One True b!X | December 02, 01:10 CET

I know I have.

korkster | December 02, 01:16 CET

Well, I may be an amoral idiot who's not quite aware what he's doing in a situation but loves to play with technology, but sadly I don't have Tophers hair. (although a kindly gentleman on QVC once tried to sell me some rather fetching spray on hair). (and a free pen set) (I'm all about the pens)

gossi | December 02, 01:21 CET

*couBLOGh*

Sunfire, next time please do that into a toilet or trashcan or something. ;)

Very awesome set. I didn't realize it was anything like that. And they seem to have put in ceilings and stuff too, which I guess is more the rage these days than it was in the past. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into the building of that thing.

VeryVeryCrowded | December 02, 02:56 CET

I know, I know...just trying to remain positive..I can't bear another Firefly Fiasco!! lol

WheelsOfJoy | December 02, 03:01 CET

I wonder if toy stores around the world will be flummoxed over the curious increase in sales of Whee-Lo toys.

cabri | December 02, 03:49 CET

Ooh, very nice (in a sterile, Giorgio de Chirico, soul-draining way).
Don`t underestimate that hard drive though. Your whole genotype fits on a CD, and the brain is only about 100 billion cells. It would fit snuggly on a 1TB model storing 10 bytes per cell. With Topher-Huffman coding god knows how much the Dollhouse saves on hardware each year. Yes...Quickly! To the geekmobile!

hence | December 02, 05:47 CET

Is it just me that wonders why they create a personality on a computer and then download it onto a portable hard drive just to take it twenty feet to an imprinting chair? Cables, people!

An is this the first time we've heard that the actives volunteered to give up five years of their life? I've never heard that before, but then I've been avoiding most of the spoiler threads.

zz9 | December 02, 07:54 CET

I think that was known from the start, zz9. At least, it sounds familiar to me and I don't really keep up with the news.

Caroline | December 02, 08:32 CET

That set is just so pretty. But, with the people standing round in bathrobes and whatnot, did anyone else get reminded of the 'Pond's Institute'?

Perhaps they can't have cables running across the floor as they're an OHS issue. Everyone wants an injury free workplace- even evil memory-imprinting/personality stealing firms...

missb | December 02, 08:38 CET

If the Dollhouse is in LA, is it represented by Wolfram and Hart?

[ edited by gossi on 2008-12-02 09:05 ]

gossi | December 02, 08:43 CET

The five years thing has been known, but I don't recall if it was ever one of those overtly announced things, or something that came from a script leak.

The One True b!X | December 02, 08:52 CET

Ah well, then it's just me trying to avoid reading spoiler stuff.

zz9 | December 02, 09:27 CET

Your whole genotype fits on a CD, and the brain is only about 100 billion cells. It would fit snuggly on a 1TB model storing 10 bytes per cell. With Topher-Huffman coding god knows how much the Dollhouse saves on hardware each year ...

Yeah but it ain't the years, it's the mileage ;). I.e. it's not just the number of cells in your brain, it's the connections and that stretches into the tens of trillions. On average each neuron has about 1,000 connections to other neurons, you can Huffman code til you're blue in the face, you're gonna struggle to store that in 80 bits (just to "address" 10 billion spaces you need around, what, 33-34 bits ? In a Huffman scheme that'd only be for the least connected neuron but still ...).

With the DNA analogy it'd be like storing the bases and having to store how proteins fold, information about various bonds between the atoms/molecules etc. Luckily, reality already "stores" that information for us so DNA is "only" 3 billion base-pairs and fits on a CD.

(and that's before you even consider storing the state of each neuron, which is a lot more complicated than just '1' or '0')

Saje | December 02, 11:03 CET

That set is bigger than my local shopping centre.

Simon | December 02, 11:43 CET

Heh. I read the comments first before seeing the video and I was thinking "Wow, so the set really must be pretty big." Then I watched the video and I was all "OMFG, that set is HUGE!"

dzr | December 02, 13:40 CET

Hehe, yeah you`re right Saje. Perhaps you could describe most connections implicitly from the neuron positions though, but that would make them stateless in the storage scheme and something tells me that to capture the mind you need the whole shebang (not to mention the quantization issue, we are perhaps inherently analogue). Then again, personality programming like in Dollhouse shouldn`t require the full brain state.
Awesome set, want it in three-dee.

hence | December 02, 16:31 CET

December 01 2008